Nadal, Davydenko fall in mass exodus
FROM THE ABN AMRO WTT IN ROTTERDAM – When Tomas Berdych powered his way past Roger Federer at the ’04 Olympics – before reaching the fourth round at the US Open and winning his first ATP event in Palermo – the Czech was one of the tour’s most promising youngsters. But after hovering around the tenth place in the rankings for about a year-and-a-half, Berdych seems to have run into a wall. Or has he?
“I don’t think so,” Berdych told TennisReporters.net. “I reached my first quarterfinal of a Grand Slam [in 2007]. I won another tournament in Halle. So the year was a little bit different than the year before. But the ranking in the end doesn’t matter that much. If you want to be a good player, you don’t really look at this.”
Despite suffering a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Ivo Karlovic in the second round in Rotterdam on Thursday, Berdych has an excellent shot at overtaking his career high ranking of No. 9 in the next couple of weeks. He reached second rounds in Dubai and Indian Wells in 2007, and the third round in Miami. With a couple of good results, the Birdman could go as high as No. 7 heading into the clay-court season.
Berdych reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, where he wasted more than a few opportunities to take at least one set off a shaky Federer. The No. 1 admitted afterwards that Berdych was the better player for most of the match. “Of course I thought I could win,” said the Czech. “The match before he was playing like five hours with [Janko] Tipsarevic, and so I felt that the chance was really good.”
“The first set it was really up and down and it looked like I was better but I lost once my serve and lost the set. Then I had a lot of chances in the second set.”
Berdych said he believed if he had taken the second set, he’d be in a better physical shape than Federer and would have had a great opportunity to win the match. “But when you’re two sets down against Federer and you have to win the next three, then mentally it’s really tough.”
Berdych has better memories of his match against Federer at the ’04 Olympics in Athens, where he came from a set behind to defeat the Swiss 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. “It was my first big tournament. I was like 80 or 90 in the rankings and one of the last in the Olympic Games, so it was an amazing match.”
But what meant more to him was how he followed up on his win in his next events. “I was happy it wasn’t only one match. That happens, that you make a huge result and then nothing, nobody heard about you anymore. But I reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam and kept it going.”
CAREER BEST RANKING LOOMS FOLLOWING NEW TRAINING REGIMEN
“Now is the best chance to do it,” Berdych said on improving his ranking. “It’s easier in this situation than if you have to defend points and win an event. I’m healthy, I’m feeling well and my tennis is pretty good.”
Because of his 6', 5" height, Berdych spent the off-season not working on his tennis, but on endurance, and improving his mobility around the court. “All the years before I was staying at home, practicing in the same place, and now we went for the mountains, so it was different conditions. So far it looks like it works and it was the right way to do it.”
“Of course with my fitness, I’m not having problems, but I think all tall players have problems [with their movement] on court. I think [working on my fitness and footwork] is really important because forehand and backhand everybody can play the same now. To keep the good results you need to be fit, so you can play long matches and win the ends of the set, so I think that’s the most important.”
NEVER MISSED A DAVIS CUP TIE
After Berdych became a member of the Czech Republic’s Davis Cup team in 2003, he has amazingly never missed a tie since. He likes the Davis Cup format the way it is, being spread over the course of a year, and he wouldn’t make any changes to it, other than moving the first rounds to the week directly after the Australian Open.
“Of course it’s for the country, but I always like the team competition because the atmosphere doesn’t compare with any tournament,” he said. “You can spend a whole week with the team and then you can play for the country, so I really like these weeks.”
Asked what would mean more to him, a Grand Slam title or a DC win, Berdych couldn’t pick one or the other.
“These two things, you can not compare,” he stated, after taking some time to think about it. “If you win the Grand Slam then it’s something amazing. It’s just for you. If you have a team competition, you have a team and you win for the country. Even if you’re in the team and there are some other guys that are better than you and they won the last tie, it’s still the same important, because you’re there with four guys. I think it’s no chance to compare.”
Judging from how he likes to play for his country, and how high he rates the Davis Cup, Berdych sounds like the kind of player who would prefer an Olympic medal over winning a major, but the opposite is true. “It’s still for us, for the tennis players, the Grand Slam is more important. I like to play the Olympics, I enjoy the atmosphere, I like to see all the other athletes, all the other sports, it’s nice. But for the career of a tennis player, or for me, the Grand Slam is more important.”
“I’m looking forward to the Olympics, and maybe some medal would be nice, but the best for this season would be to finish in the Top 10. So let’s start with the Top 10 and then keep going.”
After the tournament in Rotterdam suffered from about two dozen pull-outs in the last two years, the big names that were in town for the 35th anniversary of the event this year have all been sent packing already. There is not a single seed among the quarterfinalists, as Rafael Nadal, Nikolay Davydenko and David Ferrer fell on Thursday. The last time all seeds were out of an ATP tournament before the quarters was in Nottingham in 2006.
Nadal, the top seed, lost 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 to Andreas Seppi of Italy, who celebrated his 24th birthday. The Spaniard played well against Dmitry Tursunov in the first round on Wednesday, beating the hard-hitting Russian 7-5, 6-3. But against the aggressive Seppi, Nadal came up short. Seppi, who edged Lleyton Hewitt in the first round in a third-set tiebreak, led 5-2 in the final set before he coolly served it out at 5-4. Nadal was playing too defensively and simply got outplayed by the red-hot Italian. “I lose, not the balls or the court, I lose, no excuses,” said Rafa after the match.
Second-seeded Davydenko was upset by Frenchman Michael Llodra 6-3, 7-5, while Ferrer fell to German qualifier Mischa Zverev 6-2, 7-5.
The tournament lost two other big assets before it had even started, as the Australian Open finalists Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga both pulled out.
In the quarterfinals, Seppi will take on Robin Soderling, Gilles Simon faces Teimuraz Gabashvili, Zverev plays Karlovic, and home-playing wild card Robin Haase will face the serve & volleying Michael Llodra. Out of all these pick’em matches, I’ll go with Soderling, Simon, Karlovic and Haase to come through on Friday.
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